Yours Sincerely

David Allyn With The Bill Holman Orchestra (discovery)

October 27, 1985|By Larry Kart.

Almost forgotten today, David Allyn was a superb pop-jazz vocalist who rose to prominence with Boyd Raeburn in the late 1940s and then virtually dropped out of sight.

Allyn surfaced again in the late 1950s, recording several fine albums that Discovery has been reissuing. ``Yours Sincerely`` has more of a jazz flavor than the others (don`t miss ``Sure Thing,`` which features Jerome Kern material), but Allyn`s style remains the same no matter what the background

--as his remarkably rich, deep voice caresses the melody with a grace that few singers of his era even approached.

The emotional climate of Allyn`s music was unique, too, for he sings each song with a total sense of belief. It`s as though he were simultaneously embracing and abandoning himself to the story of each song, and the results are so romantic that they ought to have a warning label.